


Poker Face

by InLoveAndSqualor



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Bandom - Freeform, Lady GaGa - Freeform, M/M, MCR, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-30
Updated: 2011-05-30
Packaged: 2017-11-04 05:24:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/390244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InLoveAndSqualor/pseuds/InLoveAndSqualor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Frank and Gerard play poker together, Gerard always wins...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Poker Face

Gerard watched, intently, the sweat glistening across Frank's furrowed brow.

"I fold," Frank sighed throwing his cards down on the table, frustrated.

Gerard grinned smugly from ear to ear.

"Let's see what you've got then," Frank sighed, sure that Gerard must have some astounding hand.

Gerard fanned out the cards in his hand before laying them down dramatically on the table in front of him.

"Three of a kind," Gerard laughed pointing at the three sevens amongst his cards.

Frank buried his face in his hands as Gerard reached over the table and turned over the cards his friend had thrown down moments before.

"Wow… A full house," Gerard cooed. "My poker face really is impenetrable." He laughed happily to himself. Before he turned his attention to the piles of notes in the middle of the table, gathering them into his forearms.

"It's because you always let the stakes get too high," Frank returned begrudgingly. "You're a madman," he laughed. "It throws me off."

Gerard laughed smugly and stacked up the cash by his side, pulling his thumb across the edge, creating an oddly pleasing sound.

"The problem with your game is you're too scared of losing Frank… Makes you too predictable." He stated flatly, a smile nevertheless playing on his lips.

Moodily Frank blew away his fringe, that had fallen over his eyes, and took an angry gulp of the Jack on the rocks beside him on the table.

"Well… That's me out anyway," he declared shaking his head disdainfully, reaching over to pull a cigarette from its box. As he sparked his lighter the flame flared violently below his lips.

Frank glanced up to see Gerard suddenly leaning clumsily over the centre of the table, a cigarette balanced perfectly between his delicate lips, his eyebrows raised playfully. Frank let out an amused sigh and offered over a light, the flame illuminating his friend's impulsive expression before it disappeared; enveloped in a fog of smoke as he took deep luxuriant drags.

Gerard took the cigarette from his lips and glanced at it lazily between his fingers deep in thought.

"One more game," he said without looking up.

"I don't think so…" Frank replied fiddling self-consciously with the box of cigarettes beside him. "You've cleaned me out."

"We don't have to play for money…" Gerard teased as he placed his hand on Frank's fingers, that were shaking anxiously on the cigarette packet, holding them still. 

Nervously Frank pulled his hand out from under his friend's and took a desperate gulp from his glass; finding it the perfect excuse to flee from the table, under the guise of filling it again.

Gerard kept his eyes on Frank making his way across the room, pulling himself back across the table, and leaned back in his chair one arm slung over the back. He watched amused as Frank fussed around fixing his drink.

"I'll tell you what," Gerard called across to him. "I'll give you a chance to win back your money and…"

"And…?" Frank laughed, heading back to the table, drink in hand, a look of intrigue playing on his features.

"Well…" Gerard replied slowly reaching over to cradle his drink between his fingers. His cigarette still balanced precariously amongst them, ash tumbling off the end, gathering in a growing pile.

"Well let's just say I'll get something I want too." He smiled mischievously, taking a sip from his drink indulgently and brushing away the ash that had gathered on the table by his hand.

"All my money?" Frank asked, temptation getting the better of him, trying desperately not to think of the loaded nature of Gerard's wager.

"Uh huh," Gerard grinned gathering the scattered cards towards himself over the table.

Frank decided it would be best to try not to think about what price he might have to pay for losing and instead concentrate on how he could win back some of his money and perhaps even a little pride.

***

Frank stared uselessly at the back of the fanned out cards in Gerard's hands. The intricate red on white pattern blurred with each second that he stared at them. His eyes bored into them as if, somehow, he studied them long enough he'd see through them and reveal their secrets. 

The chips they were now playing with, in place of money, were piled untidily between them, contrasting with the obvious lack of the red plastic tokens by Frank's side. He was losing again and Gerard was wielding his advantage like a blade, running its edge with breathtaking precision over Frank's jugular. He shuddered noticeably at the thought of it.

Frank shifted his gaze uneasily to the cards in his own grasp. He had a fairly good hand and he knew it but Gerard was betting high and hard again and it made him uneasy, it felt like another one of his tricks.

He felt as if he were being slowly lulled into a false sense of a security. Gerard falsely setting up a pattern for Frank to pick up upon. Gerard had been folding when his cards were bad and kept raising the stakes with confidence when they were good. Frank had noted this sudden cautiousness in his friend and it felt like a trap. It was a good trick to pull but he was just waiting for the next big blag and he was almost certain this was it. He knew that Gerard never played a safe game. He felt it was only a matter of time until Gerard gave into the temptation, let his ego believe that he could bluff his way to a win.

' _And you call me predictable…_ ' Frank thought, an amused glimmer creeping into his eyes.

Gerard shot up a puzzled look at the intensity that was forming in Frank's features and took an unsure sip from the glass beside him.

"I'm gonna match your ten and raise you…" Gerard announced toying with the stack of chips beneath his delicate fingers.

"Hell… I'm all in," he laughed gathering all his remaining chips and scattering them atop the pile between them.

The blood drained from Frank's face, suddenly he had lost his conviction, suddenly he wasn't so sure that this was a bluff. But he had no choice, he'd painted himself into a corner and left it to Gerard to force this game to an end.

Frank gingerly pushed the last of his chips into the pile, staring intently at them as they became lost amongst the others, his other hand groping at his side for his packet of cigarettes.

He asked himself desperately why it was that Gerard always had the power to make him so unsure.

Gerard's smirk seemed, to Frank, to reach across the table and wrap tightly around his throat.

His mouth felt impossibly dry as he watched Gerard bite his lower lip excitedly, impatience painted amongst the murkiness of emotions in his dark hazel eyes.

"Well…" Gerard goaded as Frank anxiously lit a cigarette, shifting in his seat. "Let's see those cards."

Any belief Frank had had in his hand faded from his mind.

Cigarette planted between his lips and trapped impossibly in Gerard's gaze Frank relented and placed his cards face up on the table.

"Impressive…" Gerard grinned, taking his glass in his hand and raising it confidently to his lips.

Frank watched as the golden brown liquid gathered at the dam that was Gerard's lips, pooling there before disappearing between them as they parted. They gleamed enticingly with little wet whiskey beads and he ran his tongue over them slowly… Purposefully.

Alarmed Frank tore his eyes away.

"Four Queens… Not bad huh?" Frank muttered cautiously. The strength of his hand tugging his lips up into a smile, uncertainty dragging them back down.

Gerard dramatically raised an eyebrow, the gesture revealing more than Frank would have liked to admit.

"Too bad," Gerard smiled, placing his cards face down on the table, staring into Frank's eyes intently.

Frank sprung up frustrated and retreated to the table, at the edge of the room, that was hopelessly cluttered with half empty bottles. He fixed his drink in silence before closing his eyes and breathing deeply; concentrating on the dizzying world behind his eyes.

"I guess I win again," Gerard called cheerily across the room.

Frank raised his glass to his mouth, eyes still tightly closed, and filled his lungs with the strong scent, his lips burning as he drank it down. It made him feel sick; caused a nausea to crawl viciously up his throat. 

Gritting his teeth he did his best to appear as if he were strolling nonchalantly back to the table at which Gerard sat. All the time trying to desperately ignore the sparks that felt as if they were flying between them; great golden and silver arcs that crackled and hissed on their way.

Frank reached down to Gerard's cards, fixated by the sight of them still lying there face down on the table. They looked ready to tell their secrets. But Gerard caught his hand in midair and forced it down upon them. 

Frank froze, stood stoically still and endlessly uncomfortable. Anxious to pull his hand away, powerless to do much else other than gawp at his hand below Gerard's and the wry smile that was slowly making it's way across his friend's face.

The tension in the room felt thick and oppressive. The air stale and beyond breathable. He felt he was caught in a trap that Gerard had engineered from the start.

Gerard stood up, kicking the chair out from under him, his hand still locked over Frank's. He looked beautiful yet intimidating, his smile a simmering contrast between the two.

Bewilderment and fear, excitement and trepidation, nailed Frank to the spot. And feeling all this made him feel so out of control when compared with the sight of Gerard's placid features.

Frank wished they'd had the radio on at that point, he needed the inane chatter, anything to dispel the thick looming silence surrounding and consuming the two of them.

"You've never been any good at poker," Gerard questioned with a total lack of curiosity in his steady voice. "Why'd you even bother to play me?"

"You don't have to only do the things you're good at," Frank tried, noting with regret the crack appearing in his voice.

Gerard looked down at Frank in disbelief, his motionless hand still making his friend's a captive.

"You know… I do," he replied, flashing down one of his devastating smiles, no sign of the ambivalence Frank knew he would have shown at such an admission.

At a loss as to what to say, captured again by the torture of silence; Frank just stared at his hand clamped uselessly beneath Gerard's. He winced at how his palm felt sickeningly warm and sticky against the tables polished surface. 

Gerard followed Frank's eye line lazily and edged his forefinger slowly over the smooth surface of the hand below his own.

"So…" He began ominously. "I won… So now I get that something that I want."

He shone a sinister smile at his uncomfortable quarry, still shivering, seemingly trapped in that helpless panic of prey.

"Can you think what that'd be?" Gerard enquired luxuriantly, in smooth velveteen tones, still working his pale fingers over the tattoo adorned hand below them. Frank, although helpless to answer, had a good idea.

_It'd been raining outside, and sitting in the tour bus, it felt like they were being pelted by millions of tiny rocks whilst sheltering in a tin can. The rest of the guys were out for the night but Frank and Gerard had stayed behind. It had been Gerard's idea and with a puzzled grin Frank had gone along with it. They'd drank through the night, watching trashy slasher-movies. Talking over most of, if not all of them, picking holes in the plot, explaining to each other what they would have done differently if chased by an axe-wielding killer from the pictures they watched._

_At 4am they stumbled back to their bunks, a 90s B-movie still playing on in the background, a soon to be ex-blonde screaming in mindless terror to her absent audience._

_Frank lay fully clothed on his bed, the room spinning nauseatingly behind his closed eyes, and let sleep take him from the terrible pull of sickness._

_The spark of a lighter woke him from his, dreamless, alcohol induced sleep. Groaning Frank looked to his side, at the digital screen of his alarm clock. It read 4:26, the numbers shining unpleasantly, dimly illuminating the room around it a ghostly shade of green. He looked down to see Gerard perched on the end of his bed._

_"What in the hell are you doing?" Frank murmured grumpily, rubbing a numb hand over his eyes._

_"What?" Gerard smirked, a cigarette balanced loosely between his slender fingers. "I couldn't sleep… I was… Scared." He smiled ironically, he just couldn't bring himself to lie convincingly about something so absurd._

_'Since when had Gerard been scared of anything?' Frank thought, his irritation and bemusement plastered across his features._

_Gerard crawled up the bed, cigarette now tightly between his lips, smoke ghosting up into the atmosphere._

_Frank squirmed backwards, his head meeting harshly with the wood behind, unsure of what was happening, but certain of the discomfort that was settling in the pit of his stomach._

_Gerard leaned over Frank, causing their lips to sit millimetres apart, and stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray sitting on the nightstand._

_Gerard's breath smelt of tobacco and sweet smoky bourbon, it was somehow pleasing even comforting in a situation that troubled Frank so._

_Free from his half-smoked cigarette, Gerard ran his hand through Franks sleep tousled hair. And to Frank it felt good, it felt strange and disconcerting yet warm and exciting to feel close to another._

_Wordlessly Gerard leaned in certainly for a kiss, and Frank obliged without resistance. He felt the comforting heat of his mouth and the pleasant caress of his friend's tongue searching for his own._

_He let his hands clutch Gerard's face as they fell into each other on the small untidy bunk. Gerard's cool hands ventured up Frank's shirt and mapped the contours of his chest, savouring every inch. Emboldened Frank pulled away and grabbed the edges of his shirt, pulling it over his head and relinquishing it to the floor. His chest exposed, Gerard ghosted kisses along Frank's jaw, down his neck, his chest as he unbuckled his belt and unbuttoned his jeans._

_Frank felt lost in this, conquered by his friend's tender touch. He gripped the comforter below as Gerard took the whole of his arousal into his hot damp mouth…_

Frank was shaken from his memories by a careless hand tangling into his hair, tugging just that little too hard. As savage as it was Frank could feel the careful level of control, the perfect balance that kept it on the threshold of real pain.

Gerard caught Frank in a rough but inviting kiss, occasionally biting, playfully, his friend's kiss-bruised lower lip. Frank felt a wave of arousal and desire crash into him, as surely as a blow.

Still shocked into submission Frank felt his friend lead him backwards towards a wall of the room. Was lost in the deepness of their kiss as his shoulder blades jarred back against it, felt a shudder of pleasure run through him like waves upon waves.

Frank groped unsteadily for, and found, Gerard's waist, noted that all he could do was let his hands shake uselessly upon it. Gerard however had turned his intentions to Frank's fly. Frank tried to speak, but it came out stifled against Gerard. To him Gerard's kisses were like a welcome attack, leaving him helplessly overwhelmed but enthralled nonetheless.

Gerard pulled Frank's hands impatiently from his waist and led them around to the buttons of his jeans; tearing away from their ardent kiss to stare into his eyes with a look that ate him whole.

He was so sure, so beautifully certain; self belief was encoded in his every feature in a way that Frank had no choice but to admire. He smiled shyly back as a response; a rose-coloured blush making it's way across his cheeks.

He unbuttoned his friend, watching the way Gerard drank in his features as he did; it was that look that made him feel like he was slowly being consumed, pleasantly adulterated under his intense gaze.

He wished he had even an ounce of that strength that made Gerard such a formidable force, a person who seemed to realise everything which he desired.

"Turn around," Gerard ordered, gently, in soft sensual tones.

Frank felt his stomach lurch, his heart skip a few beats at the casual instruction that he knew wasn't up for discussion.

Visibly shaking Frank stole a final glance at those lethal features and turned numbly to face the wall behind him. 

Gerard placed his still, confident, touch on Frank's slender waist before trailing up to his shoulders, and down his arms until he found his hands. He tangled his fingers fiercely into Frank's. 

Fingers now tightly entwined, he led Frank's hands to the wall in front and guided them, palms flat, to the cold hard surface before him. All this he did deliberately, and torturously, slowly all the while planting tender kisses along his captive's neck.

"But we don't have any…" Frank managed to force out his shaking lips; his voice noticeably high-pitched and cracked.

"Shhh…" Gerard interrupted flatly, his lips still hovering over Frank's neck, his breath, thick, hot caresses upon it. "I got it all planned out," he explained soothingly.

Alarm strangled around Frank's throat, crushing his ability to speak; while he tried to guess exactly how much of this had been in Gerard's plan. But Frank failed to think clearly even of that as Gerard reached down to his jeans and wrapped his palm tightly around his waiting erection. The contact felt so good, and it occurred to him briefly that Gerard would have drawn this whole thing out for maximum effect. But he didn't care, not when it felt so good to have the other man's hands upon him, the knowledge of Gerard's erection digging into the small of his back.

Inexplicably Frank found himself trying to silence the low groans that threatened to force their way out of his trembling lips each time Gerard deepened a stroke and let his own excited breaths fall out of his parted lips and tumble over his shoulder. It felt like the only part of this he could hope to win, if he could just conceal the ecstasy Gerard's touch could cause in him. He bit his lip helplessly, felt the chalkiness of the paint gathering beneath his fingernails as he dug them impotently into the wall beneath them. 

"Having fun?" Gerard smirked through heavy breaths, gradually speeding up his efforts and revelling in the reactions Frank struggled to conceal.

Frank shuddered as Gerard ran a possessive tongue over his ear, a hand down his trembling cheek. Appalled and enraptured by the sensation he nodded meekly as an answer; an epicurean smile working its way across his lips despite himself. 

With his free hand Gerard ghosted a line down Frank's hips before fleeing and delving into his own pocket, causing the strokes of his opposite to become erratic and unsteady.

Frank gave out a low moan at the change in rhythm and through the fog of his pleasure had the clarity to turn his head to steal a glimpse of Gerard retrieving a small packet from his jeans.

"We haven't… I haven't… Before," Frank stuttered; shaken both by the desire that made his tongue awkward and thick and the fear of the unknown that stuck uselessly in his throat.

"Relax…" Gerard sighed, seductively nuzzling into the crook of Frank's neck.

And just when he thought he could get lost in the sensation of Gerard's lips and nose brushing softly against his neck, his hand wrapped tightly around his cock; he pulled away and left those places where he'd been impossibly cold in his absence.

Frank moved to spin around but found his shoulder caught in Gerard's tight grip, pushing him back with impassioned force.

"Just wait there…" Gerard teased in soft yet commanding tones.

Frank shivered involuntarily as he heard a faint tearing from behind him. It was exhilarating and daunting knowing what was ahead; the reality that they were going to take this further than they ever had before. He felt impatient and desperate; as if something weren't to happen soon he might turn around to clutch that, hauntingly pallid, angel's face behind him, forcing those petal-soft lips against his own and…

For the second time this evening Frank was pulled violently from desperate thoughts of passion. Gerard had tangled his slender fingers up into Frank's sweat-touched hair and pulled; pulled until he had his head resting awkwardly on his shoulder and captured a final kiss.

Frank winced at the pain that shot over his scalp and down his neck, yet strained eagerly to greet the familiar comfort of Gerard's mouth. Their tongues fighting desperately in harmony.

Both relief and a sense of loss washed over Frank as Gerard released his hair and ran his fingers gently down his spine. Finally reaching, and settling his palm firmly on, his hip. His other hand tugged impatiently, frantically pulling Frank's jeans down lower.

Frank closed his eyes and held his breath, bracing himself; anticipation buzzing coarsely through him.

"Jesus…" He gasped breathlessly. "Please… Not so rough." And regretfully he noted that his request came out like pleas. 

Gerard traced his free hand back to Frank's aching hardness, his breaths echoing deliberately and heavily in his ear.

"Come on…" Gerard implored softly. "This way's so much more fun."

***

Frank glanced sheepishly up at Gerard, buttoning his jeans and trying to dispel the blush that crept across his cheeks; the blush of someone that had shared themselves with another, at their most vulnerable, only moments before.

Gerard grinned coyly and caught Frank's hand in his own. 

For silent minutes they just smiled at each other serenely, their desire spent. 

Wordlessly Gerard caught Frank's chin in the opposite hand and leaned forward to plant a playful kiss, tenderly, in the middle of his forehead.

"I gotta go," he said with a smile that allowed the slightest signs of regret to slip through.

Frank smiled weakly, trying to covey that he understood, and nodded mutely before walking over to the table still pilled with their forgotten chips to retrieve a cigarette. 

Gerard took a last look back at Frank and shot over a knowing smile.

Frank listened to the gentle click of the door closing behind Gerard, as he left, and lit his cigarette in cheerful weariness. 

For a moment he was stopped in his tracks by the sight of his fingers that still shook faintly, his cigarette balanced precariously between them. He laughed a private laugh at himself as he slumped down into the chair at which Gerard had sat in the hours before. Groping for the ashtray Frank spotted Gerard's cards still fanned out facedown where he'd left them. Lazily he grasped the edges and toyed with the thought of what lay underneath. Turning them over and finally revealing Gerard's hand his eyes shot open wide in pure disbelief.

"Two pairs," he chocked out in shock to the empty room; before he happily let a defeated smile take his lips a prisoner.

**Author's Note:**

> Contest Prize  
> Theme/Prompt: Poker Face by Lady Gaga


End file.
